Tag: reviews

Overview:

This week we are looking at the tools you can use for free video calling. Skype has become synonymous with video calling, but is it the best option? In this review, we pit Skype against a newer programme called Zoom. At a first glance, it seems like just another video calling programme, but when we started using it, we realised that it’s actually quite different (and better) than Skype. The main focus of this review will be on Zoom, and we will be using Skype as the baseline to compare it to.

What you need:

A laptop, tablet or mobile. We tested Zoom on an iPad and a laptop to see what the differences were (available for iOS and Android).

A webcam and microphone. Most newer devices have these built in, but some older ones don’t, so you might have to buy a separate webcam and microphone.

Pros:

The main pro, when compared to Skype is that it consistently works. Everyone has had the experience of being on a Skype call and it being glitchy or cutting out, or the sound going (often during the most crucial parts of the conversation). However, with Zoom, it worked every time, even when calling differing numbers of people and across different distances.

Each meeting has a unique ID number, which can be used to send an invitation to the participants. There is also an option to schedule meetings, which can be saved on your calendars. This is a far cry from Skype where emails have to be sent in advance and callers end up hanging around waiting for someone to remember their password or connect to the internet.

There are many options within the call, including the ability to either leave or end the call. During the call, one person is designated a ‘host’ which gives them enhanced options (the host can change within the same call if desired).

There is a gallery view which allows you to efficiently see more than one person people on the same screen.

There is an option to raise your hand! This brings up a small cartoon hand at the bottom of everyone’s screen, indicating that you wish to speak. This is a brilliant feature that brings a sense of civility to the proceedings and is a polite way to manage conversations without interrupting or speaking over other callers.

There is an option to share screens. When we started looking at sharing screens we realised that there was an option to share control of the screen. This means that two (or more) people can both edit the same text, similar to Google Docs. However, where this departs from Google Docs is the ability to still see and talk to each other while editing, making this a truly collaborative experience.

Another function was a shared whiteboard where you can jot down ideas while you are chatting.

You are able to record conversations and video calls. If you have been recording, the call is automatically saved to your drive. This gives you an audio file, as well as a compressed and a high-quality video file. If you do not want to be filmed during your conversation, there is the option to forbid recording.

Cons:

We thought long and hard about what the cons of Zoom could be, and the best that we came up with is that Zoom is not as ubiquitous as Skype and therefore all your contacts are unlikely to have it already installed on their computer. However, signing up to and downloading Zoom is very quick and painless, and an option to do this is included in any meeting invitations that you send out.

General Feedback:

We love Zoom. Not only did it work exactly how it should as video calling software, we also discovered the amazing feature of sharing content and sharing the control of editing, allowing for collaborative remote working. Zoom combines all the best features of using a collaborative programme (like Google Docs) and Skype, with added stability and a more intuitive user interface.

It is clear that the design of Zoom was based on the actual needs of the present user (such as the ‘raising hand’ option) rather than Skype whose features are nearly identical to when it was first launched. Considering how long Skype has existed, and how widely used it is, we assumed that there would have been a resolution of most of the early problems, but what we realised is that the quality of the service provided by Skype was far worse than we anticipated.

Score:

Price – 4/5 (there is a free option, but for calls with more than 3 people that last more than 40 mins, you need a paid account)

Overview:

This week, we will be looking at sharing video content through YouTube. This platform is a versatile tool to share internally or externally produced videos. Online video is hugely popular with today’s internet users. Cultural organisations are increasingly looking to video to educate, inspire, and document their activities. This capacity can range from ad-hoc commissions of videographers as part of funded projects, all the way to staff and volunteers producing videos in-house with dedicated equipment. Whatever your means of production, YouTube is a good home for content, especially content that needs to be distributed multiple times across a variety of channels.

What you need:

An internet connection.

Depending on where your content is stored, either a mobile device or laptop.

A Google account for your organisation.

Any relevant branding: logos, copy etc.

Instructions:

Posting content on YouTube is an easy (and fun) process. After navigating to the website, you can sign in on the top right using your Google account. If this is your organisation’s first time using the site, you’ll be prompted to start setting up your channel. Your channel is your hub from which you can post your content, and engage with your audience on the site. The layout is simple and is typical of Google’s user-friendly approach.

If YouTube becomes a part of your communications strategy, then this is worth doing with your relevant colleagues who have oversight on such things. Otherwise, feel free to add as much branding and information as you feel is appropriate. Other organisations tend to treat the site as any other digital asset, and so it is common to see their channels branded like their other platforms.

There’s a button next to the search bar for uploading content. Clicking it will allow you to select the file you want from your computer. During this process, you’ll be given the chance to give your video an appropriate title and description, as well as tagging it with relevant search terms. It’s worth spending a little bit of time crafting this to ensure that your content is accessible via the search bar.

You can also make use of some limited editing tools for making minor alterations to lighting and annotations. For those without dedicated editing software, this is a useful tool to improve the quality of your videos. For accessibility purposes, there’s also the option to add subtitles and translations, which the user can enable and disable as required.

Once you are set up, you can access some useful features:

Analytics:

Each individual video you upload allows you to view detailed audience data. Like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube provides real-time info on audience demographics, traffic sources, and playback devices. Additionally, YouTube also provides data on audience retention on each individual piece of content; so you can get insight into when you lost your audience’s attention. This is a huge bonus for creators who are looking to optimise their content for their audience or experiment with new audiences.

Sharing:

Sharing your YouTube content is as easy as clicking the share button on the video player. From there, you can access your other social media, emails, and even an embed links into your website. Sites like Twitter and Facebook allow the user to access the video on their website when viewed on a computer- the analytics are still available on the main YouTube site. You could even create a QR code using the link and put it somewhere in your venue for visitors to access more information on stories and objects.

Technology:

YouTube is at the cutting edge of online video technology. At the upper limit, users can upload videos up to 12 hours long, or 128GB in size! The site also supports resolutions up to 4K. This puts YouTube firmly ahead of other leading social networks in terms of flexibility with videos. For organisations conscious of the long-term viability of the platform, they can be confident that it has so far been ahead of the curve for technological advancements.

Community:

As well as being a home for videos in all shapes and sizes, YouTube has a thriving community who consume billions of hours of content a year. Like other social media channels, YouTube users can like, dislike, and comment on posts, as well as subscribe to channels they watch regularly. Educational content can be a great place to foster debate and engagement. For organisations looking to branch out online, YouTube is a great place to be.

Pros

It’s completely free to sign up and post as much or as little content as you like.

YouTube is an easy way to access all your video content online and sharing features make distribution easy.

Powerful technology- whether it’s video uploaded from a mobile device or a crafted feature, YouTube has you covered on compatibility.

Cons

Setting up a channel can be a lengthy process. The involvement of other staff may be required, to be to ensure that branding guidelines are followed.

Content uploading can take a while depending on your internet speed.

Who should use this within a museum?

The platform is great for anyone looking to get their video content out there, be they museum educators, digital specialists, content marketers or anybody else with a special interest in video.

General feedback

Online video continues to grow and is a great way to get people excited about heritage. With modern mobile devices putting the power of video at many people’s fingertips, having the right tools to share and grow online is a top priority for heritage staff managing digital development. For those looking to put their video content out there, YouTube is highly recommended.

Overview:

This week we are going to try something different, which can help us create amazing graphic designs without having to be a professional graphic designer. Canva is a free graphic design tool used by professionals, as well as by people who have absolutely no prior design skills. It is a tool which allows users to create custom visual content for Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts.

What you need:

Instructions:

Let’s start with a hypothetical scenario: you are hosting a museum late celebrating the X museum’s birthday and you want to create a promotional poster to be published on social media for your followers.

Open Canva and click on Create a design on the top left. For the purposes of our scenario, we chose the Poster template.

First, we’ll pick either a layout or a background photo. Click on LAYOUTS from the list on the left and scroll down to look for one that is suitable for your poster’s purposes. Don’t worry about the text, as it can be altered later on! Alternatively, you can click on the white search box and enter keywords to find a relevant photo to use, but choosing a layout will save you much more time. For our hypothetical scenario’s purposes, we chose a layout that alludes to a celebration of some sort.

Now that we’ve got a striking image to draw attention, we need to give our audience some details about the event. Since we’re already working with a template, we can just edit the placeholder text and add in the right details.

With Canva you can also upload and add your own images which you can, then, edit, crop, and filter. Simply click on UPLOADS on the left, and then on Upload your own images. After you’ve uploaded an image from your own server, you can drag it from the left-hand side of the page straight to your poster. The editing options are directly above your design.

On the left-hand side, you can also see the options ELEMENTS, TEXT and BACKGROUND. You may use these if you’re creating your own design by scratch, but it is an option which is significantly more time-consuming than going for a layout which you can then edit and adjust to your own needs.

Voila – our poster is ready! All we have to do now is click Download on the top right corner. Users can choose the format in which they want to download their design. Canva will give you the option to download a watermark-free version of the design, but it will cost you, so we’ll just download the watermark version.

Pros:

It’s free!

Time-efficiency! It literally took us 5 minutes to do the whole process.

It’s extremely simple to use – the website design of this design tool (inception) is so good that everything is straightforward.

It offers a comprehensive image library and a collection of templates suitable for different industries.

Designs (posters) are printable.

You can directly share your design on social media (top right), further cutting down the time needed to create + actually share your design.

Cons:

There are additional tools that Canva can offer, but users have to pay to access them.

A number of images are not free.

Who should use this within a museum?

Anyone who works with marketing and social media, and event organisers who want to promote events and happenings.

General feedback:

We simply love Canva! It is a rare example of how a single platform can provide users of any level of graphic design with so many awesome possibilities. What is more, we love the fact that it’s free! Remember: presentation is everything. Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content! Canva is the best free tool on the market to help you easily create visual content for your museum/charity. If you need any further assistance with how to use Canva, please email me on yiota@cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk.

Overview:

This week we are going to try something a bit different, and look at how digital approaches can help museums behind the scenes in their day-to-day runnings. There are many different programmes out there that can aid with project management, organisation, and productivity. This week we are reviewing Trello, which has become a favourite of the CMP team.

Trello is a web-based project management programme. This is based on the ‘Kanban’ system (click here for an accessible link), which was developed by Toyota as a means of improving the efficiency of their production line. Trello uses a system of boards, lists, and cards to organise tasks, allowing you to work in an iterative and agile manner.In the CMP office, we have been using Trello for the last few years for team meetings and to manage specific projects, such as the redevelopment of our website.

Instructions:

Pros:

You can create as many boards as you like – so you can have a board for each project or a single board for multiple projects.

Customisable

You can customize the background of each board using photographs drawn from the Unsplash website (note: Unsplash is an amazing repository of copyright-free images!)

You can colour code each card – meaning that you can quickly and visually categorize tasks. You can also search using these coloured labels as a filter.

Collaboration

You can collaborate with other users. This is really important if multiple people are working on the same project, also allowing remote working.

It automatically refreshes, so other collaborators on your board can see changes in real-time without having to refresh or sync.

Agile

It’s based on an agile way of working, so allows you to take an iterative approach and to keep track of all changes to the project. Having a team board with all the projects happening within an organisation can be a really useful way of tracking progress. At CMP we use our team board as an effective and efficient way of structuring our team meetings – we review all of the cards on the board and move them around based on their current state of completion.

You can attach documents to cards.

You can insert checklists, which give you a percentage of completion on the front of the card.

Calendars

If you select the calendar powerup, you can view your cards on a calendar within Trello. This extracts dates from the due dates that you set for each card, and when the calendar view is activated, you can move cards to different dates. This is particularly useful if you are managing a time-sensitive project or involved in social media/marketing scheduling.

You can link due dates on cards with your Outlook calendar, allowing you to have all your deadlines in one place (this is provided by a third-party – Cronofy).

You can email tasks straight to your board. Each board has an email address, so when you get an important email that you want to add to your board, then you can forward it to this address and all of the information will be linked to your card.

Cons:

On the free account, you can only use one power-up per board. If you go for Trello Gold (the paid-for version), this only raises to two power-ups per board.

Integrations with other applications, such as Outlook and Slack require the use of a third-party service such as Zapier or IFTT.

Your email inbox can sometimes become swamped with notifications, though you can switch these off.

Be careful, Trello is sometimes used as a discussion forum rather than for organizing tasks. If you need such a facility, we suggest using Slack, which we will be reviewing soon.

Who should use this within a museum?

Everyone!

General feedback:

We at CMP hate silo working, so using Trello helps us to feel connected and allows us to effectively collaborate on projects and share knowledge. It saves times and ensures that tasks don’t fall through the gaps. In order to get the full potential from Trello, there needs to be complete take-up of this tool by everyone in the team, which can be challenging at times.

The simplicity of Trello means that it can be adapted for a range of different purposes, and in a future review we will look at how Trello has been used within the Collections Department at the Telegraph Museum Porthcurno to streamline their public enquiries.

Sketchfab

Overview:

Following on from last week’s review of publishing 3D models on Sketchfab, we are reviewing the user-experience of Sketchfab. Sketchfab is a platform where you can publish, share and discover 3D content. There are over 1.5 million scenes with a community of over 1 million creators you can follow, making Sketchfab the largest platform for immersive and interactive 3D content. As with most of our reviews, this is a free platform, where there is no cost to upload or access content.

What you need:

Instructions:

The Sketchfab website is incredibly easy to use and navigate. For the purposes of this review, we visited the profile of the British Museum, who have made a concerted effort to publish 3D models online, and have uploaded 220 to date. Following on from this we explored the models that were tagged as ‘Cornwall’ and then filtered for ‘Cultural Heritage and Museums’. We particularly enjoyed the 3D models created by Tom Goskar.

Pros:

Detailed information has been provided next to the models. We selected the Queen piece from the Lewis Chess set – this showed information relating to the date of production, height, material, as well as meta-data about the person who took the 3D scan and what equipment was used.

There is the facility for multiple annotations when a model contains more than one object.

You can download the model for free, though if you wished to charge, there is the facility. This is dependent upon copyright restrictions – so if you don’t want people to download something, you don’t have to offer it.

You can add this model to your own collection, embed it on a website, like it, and share it on social media.

You can see how many people have viewed and liked the model, allowing museums to gauge the popularity of objects.

There is the facility to set different licenses for the download, for instance, the Queen is Creative Common Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The Creative Commons system of licensing is very straightforward, and you can easily work it out here.

People can comment on each model, allowing for extra information, feedback, and discussion amongst users.

You can tag each model with generic terms, making it easy for people to find your model while browsing.

Link to the museum’s website

Cons:

We were keen to try out the VR facility on the Sketchfab app with our trusty Google Cardboards, however, we noticed that all of the museum/heritage models that we looked at were not optimised for VR. This is not a criticism of Sketchfab per se, but more of a missed opportunity on behalf of museums. We did find some ‘VR ready’ models and found the experience to be absolutely brilliant, with the ability to move around the object (something that we noticed was noticeably lacking in Google Arts and Culture and Google Expeditions.

Viewing objects in VR version works perfectly for iOS devices. However, using an Android device takes a long time for the object to load in VR and, additionally, the user must install the Google VR Services app beforehand, in order to be able to view objects on Google cardboard (or any VR device).

General feedback:

We love Sketchfab! It presents a brilliant opportunity to freely share and disseminate 3D digital content and become a member of this burgeoning online community. We particularly like the idea of being able to comment on models and feel that this would be a useful tool in the co-curation of museum objects, enhancing digital engagement and participation.

We noticed that most of the models that have been tagged as ‘Cornwall’ are archaeological or architectural, so there is a need for museum object to comprehensively display Cornish heritage.

Kneehigh – Walk With Me app

Overview:

Walk With Me is a free app which offers audio stories and interesting facts around three areas, hence there are three different walks to choose: Mevagissey, Newquay and Perranporth. We randomly picked and tested Mevagissey.

You can listen to the stories ‘rambling’ in the location in GPS mode, or you could choose to experience the stories in the armchair mode.

The walks are of various lengths and, before you set (or start) off, you can listen to a safety warning. Some examples of stories or pieces of information include:

Did you know (with an image of a girl) – story from a girl inspired by Mevagissey museum exhibit

Found – donation of the museum

Doll’s House – inspired by the doll’s house in the museum (includes artwork by Lottie – who wrote the section)

Reminiscences

The stories are based on images, objects and recollections from Mevagissey museum.

Equipment needed:

Instructions:

Connect with wifi, if you’re using the armchair mode, or turn on your mobile data, if you’re using the GPS mode

Once you’ve downloaded the app, connect your headphones and open the app

On the bottom left-hand side of the screen, there is a ‘HOW TO’ option which gives you, in text and audio, instructions on how to use the app

Pros:

You can share your experience with the app – but only links to the app rather than the individual story

There is a good mix of information

There is a good mix of Illustrations and original photographs

The locations’ colours change as you cover more points so you know where you’ve been

There are clear instructions on how to use it, with an audio section

Worked fine on iOS and android.

Cons:

Doesn’t zoom in and out of the map

No clear starting point, but then there is no overall narrative, so it doesn’t really matter

You need to download the app and the walk – this can exhaust your mobile data or take a long time to download, so try to download both beforehand using a wifi connection

General Feedback:

It was overall an enjoyable experience. The experience would have been better if we had actually done the physical GPS walk. However we found it very convenient that an armchair version is available as this makes it more accessible.

How does it relate to Cornish museums/can be used?

The stories and facts are mainly based on the museum, so a similar idea could be developed for any Cornish museum and its surrounding area.

It was a great collaborative effort between Kneehigh Theatre and the museum

There was strong community involvement to develop the app, especially by young people

Good use of GPS technology

A very good proof of concept for a location-based app utilising museum/heritage collections.

Last week we launched our Weekly Tech Review, where we started testing and reviewing all things digital. We started off with taking virtual tours using Google Cardboard and the Google Arts and Culture app – you can see our first blog here.

Google Expeditions + Google Cardboard

Overview:

Google Expeditions is a virtual-reality teaching tool. Users (or explorers) can swim with sharks, visit outer space, walk through a museum, and more, from the comfort of a house – or a classroom. It was originally created to target students within the classroom environment, but we believe there are countless possibilities for its use and applicability. Just to give you an idea, there are close to 500 expeditions available and more in development.

Similar to our review last week of the virtual reality tours on the Google Arts and Culture app, the aim of this review is to gain an idea of the user experience. Again, we are gauging whether it would be useful for Cornish Museums to create their own expeditionsfor others to experience.

In order to go on such virtual adventures, we, again, used Google Cardboard – available for under £10. Google Cardboard instantly transforms your smartphone into a virtual reality viewer. For the purposes of this review, we selected four different virtual expeditions; (i) the Parthenon, (ii) the Canterbury Cathedral, (iii) the London Transport Museum & their stores, and (iv) the Great Wall of China.

Open the app on your smartphone. The person who is the Guide must open the app first and select the Tour Guide option. Then, the Explorer(s), who will also be the one(s) using Google Cardboard, must open the app and ‘follow’ the Tour Guide.

The Guide then has control which expedition to take the Explorer(s) on. They select and download an expedition to, and it then automatically loads on the Explorer(s)’ smartphone.

The Explorer(s) must then insert their smartphone onto Google Cardboard, and the tour starts.

The Guide can read out loud an information text on their screen while the Explorer(s) are talking the tour, focus the Explorer’s attention on specific objects by tapping onto them, and ask questions at the end of the tour.

Enjoy!

Pros:

The Google Expeditions app was free to download and Google Cardboard was cheap to buy, making it accessible to a wider audience

The experience was engaging, educational and immersive.

The visual quality in Google Expeditions was much better than Google Arts and Culture. It was not as jumpy and the users felt more comfortable after they removed Google Cardboard.

The Google Expeditions app offers a wide selection of expeditions (virtual tours) – both geographically and thematically, indoors and outdoors.

The Guide option allows access to specialist information and a list of questions for the Explorer(s). This is very easy to use by both parties.

In addition to the above, the app allows the Guide to focus on specific objects each time, enabling more coordination and cohesion within larger groups of Explorers.

Cons:

You can’t go on Google Expeditions unless you use it with at least one more person.

The app and the expedition takes a while to load and connect the Guide with the Explorer(s). It might be good to ensure you are using a fast WIFI connection.

General Feedback:

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed this experience. We got to go to so many different places and learn so much without physically being there. We truly believe that this is a huge possibility for museums in Cornwall to be accessible to everyone within the county and the UK in general, and even globally. Museums have to potentially provide high quality images and content (information and questions).

This is the first instalment of a weekly review of all things digital. Each week we will look at a different digital application or technology and review it, thinking specifically about how this could be used by the museums in Cornwall.

As Digital Coordinator for CMP, I’m keen to find, and test-drive, new and different technologies, working out which ones will be useful for museums in Cornwall. Over the course of these reviews, we will also be handing devices and gadgets to a selection of museums to be tested by staff and volunteers.

Our primary focus is on low-cost or free applications that can be used with minimal effort and specialist knowledge. Each review will be given a score out of 20 and will be judged against four criteria: 1. cost, 2. ease of use, 3. educational benefit, and 4. fun! Within these reviews will look at the equipment needed, pros and cons and our general feedback.

We hope that through these reviews, you will get an honest and practical insight into how these technologies can be used within your museums, as well as providing achievable ideas!

Google Arts and Culture + Google Cardboard

Overview:

Google Arts and Culture is an online platform for museums, art galleries and cultural institutions to display their images online. This also includes Google Streetviews inside museums and virtual tours – it is the virtual tour element that we are trying out this week. In future weeks we will review the other areas of this app.

This initial review of the virtual tour element of Google Arts and Culture looks at how immersive and easy to use these tours are, with a view to creating virtual tours of Cornish museums. In a future week we will review how easy it is to create your own tour, but for this week we are focussing on participating in a tour as a visitor.

In order to test out these virtual tours we used a Google Cardboard; these are available for under £10 and can be purchased easily from Amazon (see equipment list below). Google Cardboard instantly transforms your smartphone into a virtual reality viewer.

For the purposes of this review, we selected two different virtual reality tours; (i) The Peacock Room, Washington DC, USA, and (ii) Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. We were keen to see how these could be used within museums in Cornwall, so we picked tours that presented a similar environment.

Type in ‘Virtual Tour’ in the search bar in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Select which tour you wish to try from the search results.

Follow the online instructions about inserting your phone into the Google Cardboard.

As you are viewing the tour, you will see an ‘i’ within a circle. This symbol will light up as you hover over it. When the symbol is highlighted, press down the button on the top right of the Google Cardboard.

Enjoy the tour!

Pros:

The main thing we liked about this was that the app was free to download and that the Google Cardboard was cheap to buy, meaning that it is more accessible to a wider audience

The experience was very immersive.

We both agreed that the Dulwich Picture Gallery tour was the better of the two, as it was more detailed and let you navigated around the different rooms within the

We were really impressed by the ‘i’ button that popped up on objects or buildings of interest. This provided optional information and interpretation that made this experience education, rather than just a fun virtual tour.

Cons:

We have separated this cons section into two to reflect the different tours that we tried:

Peacock Room Washington, USA

The focus was a bit blurred at times, meaning that our eyes got tired quite quickly.

The tour didn’t extend into the museum. You could explore the area outside the museum, but when you tried to go inside it just presented a series of painting and documents that could be clicked through.

We got lost! The tour had a bad ending and once we were inside the building and looking through the images, we couldn’t work out how to go back. This made the tour feel really disjointed.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

The only complaint that we had about this virtual tour was that we couldn’t zoom in on any of the paintings. This meant that while the overall immersive experience was excellent, we couldn’t look at specific items.

General Feedback:

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed this immersive experience – so much so that we made some involuntary ‘oooh’ and ‘wow’ noises when we put the Google Cardboard on for the first time! We were glad that we tried out two different tours, as this revealed that not all virtual tours are created to the same standard. We much preferred the Dulwich Picture Gallery tour as it provided a much more immersive environment and made us want to visit so we could see the paintings up close.